When in from Delos came the gold
That held the dream of Pericles,
When first Athenian ears were told
The tumult of Euripides,
When men met Aristophanes,
Who fledged them with immortal quills
Here, where the time knew none of these,
There were some islands and some hills.
When Rome went ravening to see
The sons of mothers end their days,
When Flaccus bade Leuconoe
To hanish her Chaldean ways,
When first the pearled, alembic phrase
Of Maro into music ran
Here there was neither blame nor praise
For Rome, or for the Mantuan.
When Avon, like a faery floor,
Lay freighted, for the eyes of One,
With gal! eons laden long before
By moonlit wharves in Avalon
Here, where the white lights have begun
To seethe a way for something fair,
No prophet knew, from what was done,
That there was triumph in the air.

For what we owe to other days,

Before we poisoned him with praise,